Copywriter: Matt Roberts, Group Account Director, YouDirectories

Every street is local to the people that live there. Focusing online content on local keywords generates more search results with Google’s algorithm favouring localised sites. This approach is required on each site that lists your store. Online directories are effectively duplicates of your own store pages. But, vary the content and these won’t be seen as duplicate pages, instead search engines will categorise them as ‘additional pages’ (new content). This means more search results for your brand on page one of a Google search and less of your competitors. Inserting local keywords into your store page’s title / meta description tags is the first step toward local ranking.

Your localised content should focus on long-tail keywords to delineate your site. Long-tail keywords will help the store page rank higher than a generic keyword which will have much more competition. ‘Storage Greenwich’ may describe your service and local area, but ‘Best storage company in Greenwich’ will have less competitor noise and be more likely to reach your sales market. Don’t forget the meta description tag is truncated in search results if too long, so for geographic keywords it is better to insert them as near the beginning of the tag as possible.

The Itsukushima Shrine (also known as the floating torii gate) is one of the most famous landmarks in Japan (shown above). Localised content that can be displayed on your store pages and your online directory listing pages alike should contain information relevant to the local area. Detailing nearby local landmarks is perfect for this goal. But content marketing management is (relatively) easy once you get going / have experience. For instance, have you considered adding testimonials from local businesses you’ve served? Suppliers or SME customers are often very willing to provide a testimonial for your store page and that is like gold to Google searching for local content in a search results page.

Before producing localised content for your store area, identify your target audience. Ask your store managers to interview customers face-to-face. Those interviews themselves can provide additional local content for that store. Google’s Keyword Planner is a great tool to measure search volumes for the keywords that were identified out of that customer research. If you’re lucky enough to have people willing to link back to your store page either via their personal blog or review, make sure you have content that is worth shouting about to give them reason to do so. Some tool that represents an advantage over your competitors or at least appears new to customers will do that job.

Such a tool for localised content could be a virtual tour where blog writers or reviewers can discuss your industry in general and then give an example of how people can now walk around a store to answer their questions without even visiting. Such a tool is newsworthy and worth writing about, relevant to both the readers and to Google.

Becoming active in your local town or village will also generate ideas for localised content, so you can be authentic in your writing (no one else will have that content and the same keyword search terms that you know your customers will use to find your service, will be ranked higher within that content due to its originality).

Hosting local events is one such example of being active in your local community. If your store has a lot of space that will lend itself to the activity nicely. If the local event is charity related you will also generate natural, original, localised content for your store page. Attending local events or sponsoring local events are other ways to cultivate your community inclusion. Now we know we are creating local content to rank better in a search engine. But don’t forget, the main idea should also be to position your brand in the local community. For that reason, it is essential to publish strategic content on different media channels.

Social media should be your main channel highlighting your community activity and linking back to your store pages that display it. But good high-ranking local landing pages will add to this and accelerate the results of your hard work providing excellent localised content. YouDirectories have a strong partnership with a local landing page company to achieve just that for our clients and priced on performance (so the only cost being when customers click through to your store page from the localised landing page or make a call to your store).

Local search marketing works best when utilising store page assets such as your own local research and statistics. For example, you have customers, right? So, you record sales history. From this you can glean sales patterns, data trends. You are sitting on your own gold mine of data. So, analyse this (or give it to an agency to do it for you) and put the resulting statistics on your store page (localised content derives from such data). By doing this you are creating theopportunity for bloggers and local media outlets to reference these statistics and create new backlinks for you naturally.

As a specialist agency in directory advertising, contact us for more information on building localised content, circulating localised content via online directory networks, connecting to high page authority bloggers for natural link building and for social media marketing that gains 1,000 new followers a month (see our own Twitter). All of our services are paid by performance with a cost per customer lead or cost per click (i.e. pay-by-results performance marketing). So, you only have to supply an advertising budget when we perform. Follow the YouDirectories news posts to see the next developments.

Copywriter: Lee Bratton, Senior Account Manager, YouDirectories

Everyone wants to personalise their look. E-commerce has for a long time seen the benefits and value to data personalisation. Amazon and Tesco are famous online sellers who collect vast amounts of data on customer’s purchasing patterns. They analyse recency and frequency of purchase, behavioural trends and patterns. These are used to power their offers and suggestions to sell you more things. ‘Bricks & Mortar’ sellers, often struggle to replicate those successes (with exception to those that do well on both like Tesco). In 2018 we have identified a shift in understanding with physical retailers making changes to introduce personalisation practices.

According to one research company, 70 percent of retailers with a physical store presence are now personalising the in-store experience to compete with their online counterparts. Let us introduce ‘Facenote’, a machine learning AI software that recognises your customers using face recognition techniques. By personalising the customer service, briefing sales staff to personal preferences and tracking their needs, such software can lead to greater customer loyalty and retention as well as upselling benefits.

The software requires only a simple webcam or regular security camera. Its algorithms allow for customer recognition and identification. Shoppers can then be welcomed by name, and staff on the sales floor can be briefed on each customer’s personal preferences and purchasing habits. In-store product recommendations can then be personalised in the same way that Amazon does to you online. To register, brands invite their customers to be identified by texting their selfies or sharing Instagram images.

A study by salesforce found that 52 percent of consumers would switch from a brand that doesn’t personalise their marketing communications. This is why Amazon uses algorithms to personalise user’s homepages with product recommendations based on previous search and purchase history. When you read this, you think “makes sense”. But the majority of retailers have a simple one-size-fits-all generic homepage for all logged-in users, irrespective of age, gender, behaviour, disposable income etc.

The real winners in marketing are those who have service personalisation or product leading to add-on sales, upselling and organic growth. Scotts of stow are a growing mail order company who succeed with catalogues littered with the recipient’s name making various products more appealing. Consumers will open the catalogue and see a doormat with their family’s surname on it for example and are 85 percent more likely to buy it as a result. More than this, they do it extremely well making it seem less like a Photoshoped digital makeover and more like it is a real selling product that everyone else is buying.

Netflix are one to do similar and of course they use the latest AI technology to assist their algorithm analysis. For example, if they know you haven’t yet seen Knight and Day with leading actors Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz, but you have watched many other Tom Cruise films, they will tailor the film cover in their ‘recommendations’ to show Tom Cruise. If you watch Cameron Diaz films, you will see the Knight and Day film cover with Cameron Diaz on it. It is clever marketing that is (relatively) simple to do and (relatively) cheap (brands don’t need to buy billboard adverts for example, simply use existing data to create personalisation suggestions that lead to more new sales).

YouDirectories specialise in this same approach to business listings by personalising content based on geographic area and even consumer past purchasing history. We use all the data our clients can share with us (after our usual NDA agreements to protect privacy) to tailor those natural search results showing in Google that originate from business directories. We have seen a provable uplift in response rate as a result. To discuss personalisation in more depth contact us on contactus@youdirectories.co.uk Follow the YouDirectories news posts to see the next developments.

Copywriter: Matt Roberts, Group Account Director, YouDirectories

Recruitment agencies are a good case study to examine for successful keyword use. When they receive a new job description (and a good recruitment agency will ‘obtain’ one), the first stage is to find suitable candidates. Important to that is a good keyword search on your firm’s database of registered candidates, on LinkedIn via a Premium membership, job sites or even from social media. Identify the keywords that describe those skills, qualities or experiences which the client states are required for the job. The more accurate the keyword search, the less time you spend placing each candidate. The quicker you place the candidate, the higher the ROI for your agency.

Once you have your list of candidates, the recruitment consultant must then begin to find a suitable match for the employer. The keyword search is necessary to find a ‘probable’ match, but to find a ‘suitable’ match the recruitment consultant now needs to assess the personality. The candidate’s personality must fit with the company’s culture. To begin, scan the CV’s for any pattern of regular job changing. Someone who changes jobs regularly may take longer to place, or simply make your agency look like they do not propose high quality candidates.

Scan also for candidates who have gaps in employment history to make a note to ask them the reason why (if they cannot provide a sufficient reason, the recruitment consultant must be prepared to move on the next candidate in the quickest way possible whilst observing minimum politeness). If the candidate’s address or location is known, then the recruitment consultant must also make a decision whether or not the job will be too far for them to travel to (this will increase probability of a quick placement). This is another instance where keyword searches increase profitability (speed of placing a candidate).

When the recruitment consultant is ready to speak to the candidates on their list, they must ‘listen’ to the candidates as they explain their salary expectations (if expectations are not met, it will be very hard to place them). Ask the candidates questions about why they left their previous employment, try to encourage them to be honest about their past (it will help you know what challenges you may face with the interviewer). Ask them about their hobbies and interests to assess culture fit with the client’s company.

When the recruitment consultant has an understanding of the candidates they will be proposing, it is time to call the client. A good technique is to first write out keywords for each candidate that match various key qualities desired and preferred by the client’s job description (JD). In your call, you can then succinctly say the candidate name, a short bio and your keywords. For instance, “I have a great candidate, John Smith, he has a half hour commute to your offices, 3 years’ experience. [and now the keywords] He is analytical, has good social skills, enjoys project planning and looking for flexible working”. The keywords will form the ‘desire’ part of the AIDA marketing model.

The recruitment consultant then arranges the interviews, preps the candidates, reminds the candidates (remember, when they fail to get out of bed on time, it is not just their future they’re blowing but also your agency fee) and follows up after interview. This dedication is typical in any agency and focusing on the client’s goals is just the same in directory advertising. Post-interview, the recruitment consultant makes their after-interview phone call where they could be dealing with a dejected interviewee or an elated one. Both situations will make it difficult to glean information. So, have a list of questions that will ensure you get what you need for your call to the client later.

Depending on how their interview went, for every negative answer the candidate provides, have a positive keyword to match it, ready to volunteer to the client. For example, if the candidate tells you “The interview went badly, I got caught up in the analysis and forgot how to present” match it with the positive keyword: Analytical: “sometimes he does such a great job in the analysis he forgets his presentation skills under pressure. Is this something you could work on with him in the role?”

Keywords clearly are vital to quick placement of the right candidates with a client’s role. Quick placement is key to increased ROI and profitability. Good directory advertising focuses on keywords in the same way as recruitment. Many brands (and their agencies) focus on the same description for each store, when in reality each store has different content to contribute and different keywords that will help it display in the first results page. The more accurate the results (in either candidates or a store wishing to be found by customers on Google), the more profit you will make in the year. Follow the YouDirectories news posts to see the next developments.

Copywriter: Lee Bratton, Senior Account Manager, YouDirectories

Keeping good data records is it seems, important for all parts of life (even father Christmas keeps a list). Yet, according to a CMI study, 40 percent of those businesses surveyed who stated they did not keep adequate records of past content marketing, experienced quite poor results. Whereas 53 percent of marketing managers who state their content marketing was very effective actually kept good documents recording previous campaigns. Keeping good records of your content marketing strategy will also help marketing managers justify their work and communication plans.

A brand requires brand marketing and brand marketing relies heavily on credibility. Consumers are receiving thousands of marketing messages daily from other brands competing with yours. Therefore, if your content marketing lacks credibility, seems insincere or out-of-touch with your target audience, then consumers will not have faith in your brand. To have credible content marketing, your SMM should have fresh messages that are unique and address a real concern your target audience might have. Messaging should carry brand imagery to reinforce brand association and show you understand the needs your target audience has for your product or service.

Where you communicate is also an important factor in implementing an effective content marketing strategy. This is called a distribution channel or media channel. Again, good record keeping is vital to assess different media used, times of use, content trialled, response rates etc. Without finding the right media to distribute your message, even the best content will fail in delivering ROI. YouDirectories are specialists in local search via business directory sites because we have good record keeping analysing each campaign for ROI. But also, because we have many local directories that deliver fresh content via media channels that work best for your brand and store location.

With the right network of local sites and page authority backlinks in place; With the right record keeping and reporting ready to analyse results; With credibility established via planned content along brand guidelines; It then comes down to how relevant the content is for your ‘local’ audience. Many brands forget that whilst the target audience can be classified by demographics and social-economic grouping, consumers vary greatly by location. Two ABC1 25yr old females, one in Bow, East London and one in Middlesbrough, will not respond the same way to your message. The content of your business listing must therefore meet the needs of your ‘local’ audience.

Good content marketing won’t happen overnight. But you can make measurable improvements if you ensure your agency is keeping good records of what content works and doesn’t work, if you ensure you have fresh content relevant to ‘localised’ catchment areas and if you adjust marketing budgets to fund the media channels that deliver greater ROI while withdrawing funds from underperforming media. No local business listing campaign should have the same content for all stores. Email us to discuss further. Follow the YouDirectories news posts to see the next developments.

Copywriter: Matt Roberts, Group Account Director, YouDirectories

There are a lot of talented pumpkin carvers out there and in this article we present some stunning and funny designs from our mystery shoppers and publisher/supplier contacts.
First Place – (Photo above) Elisa (or Eli) helped mummy and daddy make the pumpkins this year including a very clever cat pumpkin that looks like her top! WELL DONE ELI !

Elisa’s mummy, Hasnaa, carved the Owl in the main photo, shown close up above;

Elisa’s daddy, Robert, went a little crazy with some fabulous and very talented efforts (clown and Alien) and although they had to be destroyed after Elisa had a nightmare the night she saw her daddy’s scary artwork, it was the combined family efforts that wins first prize of £25.00

And the same pumpkins in the daytime proves they’re genuine.

Second Place – “Mr K” is the cool superhero name of Eileen’s 9-year-old. Mr K prefers to do a monster face than use a template. Excellent Pumpkin grimace Mr K. We look forward to what you create next year. But it wasn’t only Mr K’s Pumpkin that won second place…

It was a family effort again that won second place with Eileen’s original Tinkerbell Pumpkin created using a drill bit.

And Eileen’s second attempt of a very pretty pumpkin (isn’t Halloween supposed to be scary Eileen?). So, Eileen and Mr K win £15.00 for 2nd place.

Third Place – goes to Dani for this Batman and Superman inspired effort with crazy teeth pumpkin in the background. But this image alone wouldn’t have won without a little help from our furry legged friends…

Bat girl and Spider Dog to the rescue. Dani wins £5.00 for 3rd place.

Lucy and her son Tyler are missing Disney and carved a Mickey Mouse Pumpkin. Mum and son also carved Goofy, but the photos didn’t come out so well. However, this effort judged with photos that we can’t upload, wins a duplicate third place prize (technically 4th place) of £5.00. Well done Lucy and Tyler!

Group Account Director Award – Louisa’s boys were very keen for her to send their pumpkin efforts again this year. The glitter pumpkin on the left is the work of 3 year old Oliver. The scary face on the right is by 5 year old Benjamin! Well done Benjamin! They win the special Group Account Director award of £7.00

Louisa’s husband and Life-long Mansfield Town fan sneaked his own design in between the boys pumpkins late one night, a carefully crafted pumpkin showing he’s a real football fan (no prawn sandwiches for him on match day).

One of our favourite pumpkins for cuteness factor was submitted by Petra having first been drawn all over by her 3-year old. Very colourful.

Laura’s daughter Sophie age 3 years helped her mum make the cat pumpkin and was very insistent on how it should look (an agency creative director in the making there). Laura’s son Alfie, age 6 years, made the other pumpkin all by himself! Well done Alfie! And a very cute mini-pumpkin made by Alfie too. We’ll be sending mummy some equally cute finger puppets because we’ve run out of cash prizes.

Marie runs a creative and engaging blog and sent in the above. Excellent effort by Marie and family and worthy of highlighting here.

Jackie made her first pumpkin for ages after her children previously made them. Placed at the entrance to her house by the looks of it, this spooky chap will scare off trick or treat visitors!

Afra’s pumpkin is uniquely adorable. Made with her 11 year old daughter who absolutely loves owls, this ‘Owl Pumpkin’ with it’s slightly odd eyes will bring a light and a laugh to even the darkest night. And as Afra says, how many pumpkins do you see with feet? Well done all!

Hannah’s son Jaxon (with a little help from dad) carved this and clever mum made pumpkin soup for tea.

We end this year’s competition with a simple yet slightly sinister pair of pumpkins from Laura B.
Thanks to everyone who took part. Always remember if you’re making something anyway, give a competition a go, you might just win!
Follow the YouDirectories news posts to see the next developments.

Copywriter: Lee Bratton, Senior Account Manager, YouDirectories

Love your data and it will reward your brand. In such a competitive global economy, data marketing is necessary for every organisation. For local search advertising, the data brands have about their customers enable better keywords and rich content for improved Google results. Data marketing can be split into two parts. Historical data and predictive data. Historical data most companies have (even if they don’t collect it very well). It will include the name and contact details but also buying recency, frequency, monetary value (RFM); interests and other transactional data. Predictive data will look at customer geo-demographics, lifestyle, propensity to respond to different offer types etc.

But brands can’t just gather data for the sake of it. Companies must learn to ask the right questions. Agencies will generally help marketing managers define the information they need because they work on many different brands all wanting to increase market share from brand marketing or performance marketing. Here are some examples of ‘brands’ that know the data they need to meet their goal.

MI5 will be using sophisticated computer programs to analyse social media feeds, CCTV cameras (where other systems interact like number plate recognition software), Oyster card data and many more, that will help their goal to keep us safe from terrorists.

Tesco pioneered the use of supermarket data marketing as we know it today with the first widely applied loyalty card. They know what you buy, what time of day (or night) you buy, how frequently you buy, what promotions are successful for you and how your eyes look around a store. They can then combine this with social media groupings to alter buying behaviour. As consumers we are all happy to participate because stores like Boots give us good rewards. But woe betide you buy hair loss gel for a friend, because you’re going to receive a lot of hair loss promotions over the next six months!

Social Media sites like Facebook will have similar face recognition software to the security services and are (as you read this) even now analysing your photos to find you ‘friends’, people who look similar to your family and friends which may make you click to connect with. They also use contextual data targeting. Announce to your friends you are getting engaged and advertisers searching to advertise wedding services will suddenly have you added to their list of targets to receive their advert. Now you are bombarded with wedding photographer adverts (or pre-nuptial solicitor services for the more cynical).

It means ‘they’ really do know everything. If the data is used for performance marketing, which YouDirectories specialise in, then the data will help generate better keywords and rich content to ensure directory listings appear for the most relevant searches in a certain store radius. This will also mean competitor search results are pushed down the page and often to page two, so it has an added bonus. Targeted copywriting in directories increases calls, click-through-rates (CTR) and improves conversion rates from call to sale and from click to sale (the latter being notoriously poor). To learn more about how data marketing could work for you, email us below.
Follow the YouDirectories news posts to see the next developments.

80 percent of people in advanced economies work in the service sector. The marketing of services is therefore more important today than ever before. Any economic activity that creates value or some sort of benefit for people at a defined time and location, is a service. The RAC, AA or Green Flag provide the service of car breakdown recovery. Enterprise rent-a-car, Avis or Hertz provide the service of a car rental. Boots, Specsavers or Vision Express provide the service of an eye health examination. In some cases, services are coupled to products, so in the last example, an optician having performed an assessment of your vision can then sell you a pair of glasses.

The way services are marketed will be different to how products are advertised. The traditional marketing mix of the four P’s (Product, Pricing, Place, Promotion), is extended for service marketing with 4 more P’s (People, Process, Physical Evidence, Productivity). If your agency understands each of these P’s, the content for your local area business listing or local search result will have greater impact for SERP (search engine results page) success and generate a greater number of sales leads.

Product In services, the ‘product’ is intangible. When you produce it, you also consume it, for in producing the service it is often at the time it is ‘consumed’ by buyers. The service offered can be much more customised than a product therefore but brands are wise to maintain a consistent level of service offering to maintain quality and brand reputation.

Pricing Establishing the price of your service is harder than creating the price for a product. With a product, a company can calculate the cost of raw materials, labour, staffing, overheads. With a service, the company must calculate a price for the intangible offering provided with that service. For example, when choosing a restaurant, you don’t just want to be given a service of food delivery. You also want an ambience, a view, a mood setting. Service managers seek to reduce the effort customers spend obtaining the service, including time, mental or physical effort and negative sensory experiences such as a noisy room, bad odour, poor queuing system etc. This impacts on marketing.

Place Products can be sent to the consumer, but services are linked to their place of delivery. A relaxing spa will portray a better service sensory experience (added-value) in a countryside place than in a busy city. If the place of your service is different to competitors or enhances the service, then this also can be considered in the service marketing message.

Promotion All marketing campaigns require promotion and education to succeed (see the blue box in the above image). Promotion persuades consumers as to the benefits of your service over the competition, encourages consumers into time-specific action and educates them with information and advice for which your service can deliver. Services can be very quickly copied and supplied by another firm so promotion is more important in service marketing. This makes your SERP’s more important and the right localised content on your business listing advertising is key to whether your service gains market share.

People Brands must focus on reviews. Many services depend on personal relationships between your staff and the consumers. The type of interaction received by your customers will dictate if you can retain their custom and build your customer-base from word-of-mouth advertising. Remember, customers largely judge the service received, by how your staff delivered that service. Here is where an agency managing a Google Places review campaign is critical to marketing your service. Also consider other review platforms such as Facebook, Feefo, Trustpilot and social-marketing channels such as a well-managed Twitter program (YouDirectories have over 18,000 followers with high engagement for each tweet).

Process A ‘process’ is a set of rules by which a service operating system works. A poorly created process will lose you customers by a slow, laboured service delivery. Here is where our UX (User Experience) research proves useful. Understanding how customers interact with you (and with your competitors) will identify weak areas in service delivery where your process can be revised and improved. Remember, poor processes will also demoralise staff resulting in low productivity. Pret have a very good process. Rules for rules and all designed to ensure that the same standard of service is repeatedly delivered to each new (and repeat) customer.

Physical Evidence Services are intangible, you cannot ‘hold’ them. There is little to associate with them other than feelings. Most companies therefore try to link tangible things to their service to enhance their perceived service quality. This could be the appearance of the building (the red bricks in Pret, the warm browns in Costa, the black wood in Café Nero etc); landscaping; vehicles (the bright orange of RAC, the bright yellow of the AA, the green of Green Flag etc); equipment; staff uniform; signs; promotional literature and many more. This is why your hairdressers will have a well-designed waiting area with magazines, drinks and comfortable sofas for customers waiting for the service.

Productivity Improving productivity is vital to keep costs low and make your service more competitive. Brands must trade productivity against making cost reductions that result in lower service levels resented by customers (and staff). If your service inputs are transformed into service outputs that add value to the customer, then this is a good addition to place in your business listing on directory sites. Have this productivity feature stand out prominently in your directory listing when it is pulled back by Google into the first results page. Follow the YouDirectories news posts to see the next developments.

Copywriter: Matt Roberts, Group Account Director, YouDirectories

At YouDirectories we focus on something called ‘Design Personalisation’. We tailor client’s advertising to show accurate local content for stores, but we also have specifically designed adverts for a local audience and personalised messaging. These adverts have a design that is unlike anything you normally see in Yellow Pages or online and will create customer engagement to drive higher call volumes (as you can see from these images).

To understand the ROI from marketing design personalisation, we should first look at hospitality marketing. Hospitality is a collection of supplementary services that adds value to a purchase by treating customers like guests, providing amenities that anticipate the person’s needs during their interaction with the service/product provider. Hospitality marketing ensures employees treat customers as guests, greeting them with pleasure when meeting them for the first time and when old customers return. They are creating a personalised experience for each customer. This creates brand loyalty in a fractious marketplace. Pret do this very well.

A survey of 4,500 consumers by Market Force, asked consumers to rate their satisfaction with their last experience at a coffee shop and how likely they would be to recommend it to friends. The data was averaged to rate each company brand on a Composite Loyalty Index. Pret also rated the highest on seven of the eight critical drivers of satisfaction, primarily driven by ‘friendliness of staff’. Courtesy for customer’s needs extends to all forms of marketing communication. Face-to-face like in Pret, but also telephone and online interaction.

Brands realise that the customer lifecycle is more important than short-term sales and seek to build customer loyalty to gain repeat business and upsell opportunities. In the USA, hospitals make a lot of money from people because they don’t have a national health service free at point of use like in the UK. They know the reason most families start using a hospital is to give birth and with so many birthing centres and hospital, they face stiff competition. Stiff competition and a service/product that opens the door to further ‘sales’ opportunities will require hospitality marketing to make that service or product more personal to the customer.

To gain new customers, brands seeking to deliver hospitality marketing messages do so via data personalisation. According to an Econsultancy study, 74 percent of marketers know personalisation is good for business, yet the same study reveals only 19 percent of marketers are actually using personalisation. BMW improved sales conversion rates by 30 percent by personalising their media messages with customer’s first names. BMW know that your brand begins to have added value in the customer’s mind when you design the adverts to create engagement via tools such as personalisation.

The search for competitive advantage in mature industries will come down to not where you advertise but what and how you advertise. The creation of value-added services and supplementary services to make your product/service/brand stand out from the competition. Managers must be aware of selecting the right mix of supplementary services and the right agency will help you to do that. YouDirectories won’t just list your store details on websites with high user numbers, we focus on ‘personalising’ your store data to become relevant to the customer on a local level. Good Design Personalisation is an effective form of local marketing.
Follow the YouDirectories news posts to see the next developments.

Copywriter: Lee Bratton, Senior Account Manager, YouDirectories

Many local business’s today are overwhelmed by the variety of local marketing choices available across desktop, mobile and tablet platforms. Many don’t know where to start which is where these marketing tips help.
At YouDirectories, we understand how every local business is trying its utmost best to attract as many local customers as possible. We can help businesses outperform their competitors through local search optimisation and directory advertising.
Accurate & Accessible Information
One of the most important aspects of local search is ensuring that your businesses information is consistent, accurate and accessible throughout the web.

50% of business owners have listings for their business that are not accurate.

70% of business owners say they don’t have the time to manage listings on all of the sites that consumers use.

Only 23% of business owners have a good sense of how listings drive traffic to their business.

If your business information is outdated or appears in different ways in different places, it will not only lower your visibility in search it will make it difficult or even impossible for potential customers to find you.
Optimise Your Website
Make sure that potential customers can find your business in search by listing all relevant information in the website title. Create individual pages for each business location as well as each product or service your business offers. This will raise the visibility of each in search, making it easier for potential customers to find exactly what they’re looking for.
Use keywords and phrasing that potential customers are most likely to use. Include basic business name, address and phone number information on every page of your website. This not only boosts SEO, but also makes it easier for a potential customer to contact or visit your business. We recommend more than this of course for a website needs a UX focus but these are the basic tips.
Mobile Friendly
One of the biggest mistakes your business can make is not optimising its website for mobile. 50% of local searches are carried out on mobile devices. If a potential customer attempts to access your website via mobile but is interrupted by pages not loading, sizing issues or the inability to find information, they are more likely to go back into search until they find one of your competitors.
70% of mobile searches lead to online action within an hour. Mobile users that find your business online have a conversion percentage nearly three times higher than the same search done on a desktop or laptop. Why? Because mobile users are on the go. When a consumer grabs their smartphone to search, they have a specific intent in mind.
Visual Content
A picture is worth a thousand words, and when it comes to capturing your audience’s attention, you want to take full advantage of every chance to communicate your message. Consumers today are attracted to photos and engaging videos, they also help to boost website SEO and improve visibility for local listings.
Studies show our brains not only process visuals faster, but they retain and transmit much more information when it’s delivered visually.
According to Brightcove, video on social sites generates 1,200% more engagement than texts and images. Imagine what this could do to your business listing on a directory site? But you need the right sort of video so talk to us to get it right.
Don’t ignore reviews
If you want your business to appear prominently for localised searches, then you will certainly need to consider how your customers are able to leave reviews for your business online. The importance of accumulating genuine and honest reviews is increasing.
People are looking for reviews on local businesses to determine if they are exactly what they want or try somewhere else. Customers are now sensitised to write reviews and publish them, especially after a positive service and experience.
For 7 out of 10 consumers, positive reviews inspire trust. This highlights just how important they are for a local business, and it’s clear that reputation management is something that cannot be ignored.
Over 20% of searches on Google today are from users who are looking for local information and 97% of all consumers are going online to look for local companies. Using the above tips can really help to engage your customers. 83% of people doing online local searches then continue on with a number of actions offline such as phone calls, emails, visits or even purchases. What’s interesting is how consumers are researching online but buying locally.
Contact us to discuss how we can help you enhance your customer engagement using the above great tips and much more!
Follow the YouDirectories news posts to see the next developments.